


Land and Sea (You're the One for Me)

by LoneWolfWriter



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: Artist Nicole Haught, F/F, Fluff, Little Mermaid Elements, Mermaid Waverly Earp, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, Smitten Nicole Haught, possible angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-08-09 18:39:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16455230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoneWolfWriter/pseuds/LoneWolfWriter
Summary: Waverly was always told to never swim to the surface in fear of humans seeing her. When she broke the rule and saw the most beautiful girl she had ever seen, Waverly was willing to do what ever it took to get to know the redheaded human.OrThe Little Mermaid AU with a twist that no one asked for!





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to another one of my stories! Chapters will mostly get longer as the story progresses.  
>  Kudos and major credit to Zed Draws who's drawing inspired me write this AU. You can check out their work on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/zed00044595) and [Tumblr](https://gordanramseyslambsauce.tumblr.com/).
> 
>  
> 
>  

The air was warm, and the times the wind would blow was cold but felt good across bare skin. The moon was full and bright and illuminated across the ocean waters. Looking up at the sky, it was different shapes of darker blue colors, almost looking black but still beautiful with the stars mixed in. Below the night's sky, ripples of waves crashed against the shore leaving indentations in the sand, the sound of it was calming and relaxing.

  
Sitting on a boulder, sketchbook laying across her lap with one hand holding it down while the other one holding one of the granite art pencils, Nicole Haught focuses on the picture she is drawing and the scene in front of her. It was her safe place but also the only location she could go without having someone interrupt her while she was drawing.  
  
Nicole loved drawing. It was her passion and her happy place, but also it got her out of her own head. It was a way to ignore responsibilities or at least her parents. They wanted their daughter to focus on a more promising career. One that didn’t involve so many colors and random lines on a piece of paper. Even if those lines created the most beautiful pictures, anyone ever saw. It was all about math, and numbers, that went with her father’s business.  
  
It was an excellent job with a decent size office, but Nicole wasn’t the type of person to sit in a chair all day, cooped up within four walls that kept her back from the outside world. She was the girl that loved adventure. Seeing all the different types of colors that blended together in places that Nicole never been before and then capture it on canvas. It allowed other people to see what she saw and how passionate she was about drawing.  
  
There was a splash in the water, one that was heard between the split second before another wave crashed down and ‘whooshed’ against the sand. Nicole didn’t think much of it. Thinking it was just a large fish or dolphin jumping in the water and going right back down. It wouldn’t have been the first time she had saw that happen, so breaking her concentration on the picture she was working on to see if her thoughts were correct, didn’t seem necessary.  
  
When the third splash happened, it was closer than the first two, Nicole finally looked up. She looked around and saw nothing, bringing her eyes back down to the drawing. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw something come shooting out of the water, and when she snapped her head back up, all she saw was long fins connected to a slender, but scaly body, almost like a tail.  
  
Nicole thought she saw, what looked to be like human skin but then saw a tail and the fin afterward. She blinked a couple of times and shook her head. “I’m imagining things.” She murmured to herself.  
  
Focusing back on the ocean, Nicole waited to see if what she saw would jump back out of the water but after waiting five minutes, she gave up on it and went back to her drawing. Only she ripped out the one she was working on, placing it in a folder she brought with her and began working on a new piece. Before Nicole knew it, the image of a mermaid appeared and unfortunately, it was mostly the tail and fins that she captured on paper.

…

  
When you’re told to never go up to the surface, the curiosity of knowing why and wanting to go up to find out for yourself is always there. Your and two older sisters have said it too dangerous. There are things, _humans,_ that want to kill them. They have no souls when it comes to the things that live in the sea. But that doesn’t stop the need to want to find out for yourself.  
  
The first time the little mermaid wanted to go up to the surface, was when she saw something long and odd shaped but floated in the water. Waverly Earp, the youngest girl in her family, started to swim towards the thing that she wanted to know more about. Her father caught up to her first, yelling at her to stay where it was safer to ‘never go up there.’ That the _thing_ that was floating around in the water was something, the humans made. The information that Waverly was told, only made the curiosity grow even more.    
  
When the object came back again, Waverly made sure no one was following her and swan to the top of the ocean. She was in awe the moment her head broke through the surface. The thing that stayed afloat was much bigger than what the mermaid thought it would be. Waverly heard, what she figured were humans, talking and laughing. As she swam closer to get a better look, she noticed a human was by there self.  
  
Waverly felt her breathing hitch when she noticed that the human was a girl. The most beautiful girl she had ever seen. The girl had semi short red hair, and from what Waverly could tell, the redhead was tall. She had on a white shirt and black pants. Another thing Waverly had learned through the grapevine was that humans wore clothing. To her, she thought it was ridiculous and didn’t see a point to it, but then again, she was a mermaid and lived in the sea.  
  
Whoever the human was, she was focusing on something directly in front of her and not paying attention to what was going around her. The look of concentration showed on the girl's face, and Waverly couldn’t help but stare and get lost in watching her. Because the mermaid was so caught up and admiring the beautiful girl, she was almost seen by her.  
  
Swimming further down in the ocean, Waverly found a coral reef and pressed her body against it. She calmed her breathing and watched a couple of different schools of fish and one, large sea turtle, swim by. Once the initial shock had subsided, Waverly finally went over everything that had just happened and came to one conclusion. She had to continue seeing the redhead.  
  
To which Waverly did. For a month straight, the mermaid swam to the surface, had once followed the ship, a word she heard one of the humans yell out one time, and found out where the redhead lived. The girl's home was odd, again everything the humans had was strange to Waverly. But it was fascinating to see and learn everything she could about the girl that was slowly claiming her heart.  
  
Quickly learning the location, Waverly discovered that the girl liked to be by the ocean shore, below her home at nighttime. Those were the same times the mermaid was watch from a distance and admire the redhead. There were a couple of times Waverly had to swim further out when the girl came into the water and swam for a while. Other times the redhead would just sit on a rock and do whatever it was that had her concentrating like the first time Waverly had seen her.  
  
After a while of constant hiding and admiring for afar, it was no longer enough for Waverly. She wanted to know this human but didn’t know how to go about it. What she did know though, was that her father and sisters were going to kill her when they found out about her sneaking off to the surface to see said human. It was a risk, but Waverly didn’t care. She liked being above water cause that was where the redhead was. Also, if her family found out that she was developing feelings for the human, a girl one no less, she was most definitely going to be killed. Yet, it was worth it.  
  
One night, when the moon was full and lighting the night sky perfectly, Waverly took a chance and jumped out of the water. She knew the redhead was down by the shore and hoped the girl would notice her. After the third jump, Waverly gave up and swan back home. Not bothering to check to see if the human had actually seen her on the third try or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you guys think of this story so far?


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who commented on the Author's Note, it helped me a lot on what grade year I should have Nicole in. 
> 
> Sketches drawn by Zed Draws. You can also check out their work on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/zed00044595) and [Tumblr](https://gordanramseyslambsauce.tumblr.com/).
> 
>  

When morning came, Nicole’s bed had papers scattered across her bed with different sketches of what she saw the night before. She just couldn’t get the image out her head, so instead, she brought it to life by drawing it. The alarm went off for the second time, and a hand flew out from under the covers to shut it off.  
  
“Shut up, you useless thing!” Nicole mumbled, her voice thick with sleep.    
  
Peeking out from under the covers, Nicole groaned when she realized that it was time for school. It was getting closer to graduation, and the redhead was dreading it. It meant that she was that much closer to going to college for a degree that she didn’t want. Though Nicole still had four months of high school left, a day closer to getting her diploma was still heart-wrenching.     
  
As Nicole flipped over onto her bed, a couple of her pencils fell onto the floor. The sound on them hitting was like hearing a gunshot. She bolted upright and particularly flung herself out of bed. If there was one thing, the redhead hated most, was artist misusing their art supplies. She always took excellent care of them but last night was a slight exception, well, not really.  
  
After getting in late and continuing to sketch well past three in the morning, Nicole passed out from pure exhaustion. She hadn’t stayed up that late since the beginning of the senior year. After her parents found out that the artist partied all night and missed an entire day of school due to being hungover, the redhead was then put on a strict schedule, and her father put an app on her phone that tracked where she was at all times. Nicole felt like she was on house arrest and for how both her parents usually treated her, might as well had been.  
  
Picking up the pencils and whatever pieces of papers fell to the floor during the night, a loud groan fell from Nicole’s lips. She got less than three hours of sleep and surprisingly enough, didn’t regret it. Once her eyes roamed over one of the sketches, the redhead smiled to herself. Seeing the different shades of grey that made up the picture, and the main design of a tail with fins, she couldn’t help but feel proud of her work.  
  
It had been the first time Nicole had ever drawn anything that was mythical. Her sketches were either realistic, comic or cartoon illustrations. She was never the type of person to believe in fairy tales or the creatures within them. How the redhead saw it, was why should she believe in the something that was made up, but now, after what she _thought_ she saw, Nicole was willing to be a little bit more open-minded.

+++  
  
All throughout Nicole’s free period and lunch, it was filled with research and quick sketches. While looking up information about mermaids, she couldn’t stop the blush that tinted her cheeks when saw some of the pictures. The redhead adverted eyes she clicked out of the images the second she saw breasts on full display. Maybe was a little naive about the mythical creatures considering she figured that the mermaids would be wearing some kind ‘bra’ to cover themselves. But Nicole was eighteen and accepted that things were different from the human world.  
  
“What are you looking at?” Nicole’s friend Jeremy Chetri walked into the library and sat in the seat next to hers. “Mermaids? Thought you didn’t believe in any of that mythology stuff.”  
  
“I don’t... usually. I-I’m giving it a chance to change my mind though. Broadening my horizons, my dad would say.”  
  
Jeremy wasn’t dumb, far from it. He and Nicole had been best friends since the fourth grade when he moved to the town of Purgatory. The curly haired boy knew that his friend wasn’t the type of person to believe in hoaxes or any kind of folklore. Never once had Nicole ever been interested in learning that type of stuff. He figured it was because of her parents and how uptight they were about mythology.  
  
“And you think researching for an hour will help change your mind?”  
  
_I think seeing it will change my mind though._ “Like I said, I'm giving it a chance. There no harm in learning something new, right?”

+++  
  
Later that evening, once Nicole was done her homework, she grabbed her sketchbook along with her granite art pencils and walked outside. Her parents protested her being down by the ocean so much, but as she put to them, ‘it’s there, might as well enjoy it.’ It was much simpler than having to explain that she wanted to be alone and be able to draw without her mother or father telling her that it was a waste of time.  
  
Walking down the path that led to the ocean, the air felt water than usually but paid no mind to it. What made it better was the ocean breeze offsetting the temperature. Making her way to the one boulder that was large enough for her to sit on, the redhead got comfortable, and opened up her sketchbook to a new page and began drawing.  
  
Half an hour went by, and that was when Nicole heard. Her head snapped up and after a minute went by, what she thought she saw the day before, was now confirmed. The redhead’s mouth dropped opened as she watched the mermaid jump out of the water for the third time. After remembering what happened yesterday, Nicole jumped off the rocked and ran towards the ocean.  
  
“Wait, come back!”

  
…

  
An adrenaline rush coursed through Waverly’s veins as she swam around with a school of fish. She was still feeling nervous but really excited about the fact that she could have been seen by a human. More importantly, the mermaid did it without getting caught by her sisters or father.  
  
Waverly thought about swimming to the surface later that night but wasn’t too sure if it was a smart idea or not. Doing it once was one thing, but attempting again so soon might be where drew the line. Swimming up where the moon or sunlight touched the water was hard enough without being seen or ratted out by other fish.  
  
The thing was, getting up to the surface was much smoother than it was reaching the ocean floor. Hiding behind every coral reef, schools of fish, whales or even swimming away from fish-eating sharks. Either way, getting home without something happening, seem almost impossible and yet Waverly had been sneaking up to surface for weeks. Contemplating about seeing the redhead was pointless as well. The second Waverly thought about the girl it was clear that she was, indeed, swimming up to the surface that evening.  
  
As the ocean got darker, the brunette began to make her way towards the moonlight. As she quickly swam, Waverly saw her sisters Willa and Wynonna. The pair was obviosuly to wrapped up in their own conversation to notice her swimming behind a rock and then continued her journey up to see the redhead.  
  
She tried to ignore the hurt and jealousy that came from seeing her sisters. She wished she had a close relationship with them like the older mermaids did with each other, but it was hard being the youngest sibling. Wynonna always treated her good, Willa did too, but they acted more like sisters to her than friends they were to each other. The brunette always figured that if she were closer in age with them, then maybe they would treat her the same way.  
  
Shaking her head and putting all her focus on the more important task at hand, Waverly swam faster towards the surface. As soon as she reached the top, the mermaid popped her head out of the water to see if the redhead was in her usual spot. The brunette smiled excitedly when she saw the girl sitting on the rock and doing whatever it was that kept her head tilted downward.  
  
Slowly lowering back into the water, Waverly swam a little way's down and then turned around to swim as fast as she could to jump out and make a loud enough splash to get the redheads attention. The mermaid did it two more times, no different than the night before, but tonight was different. After the third jump, Waverly heard someone call out and hoped it was the redhead. The question was, should she confront the girl now or make her wait another day?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Question: Should I give Waverly a fishy friend, just like Ariel does on 'The Little Mermaid?' 
> 
> Fun Fact: Did you know that Flounder was named after an actual fish but does not replicate it or look like an actual fish?  
>  P.S: I learned that two days ago.
> 
>            


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waverly goes to jump out of the water again but instead, things don't go as planned. 
> 
> Nicole waits to see if anything jumps out of the water again and reflects on some things in her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shout out to 2BeBrazen, 4theloveofwayhaught, and lflorez21_haught for giving me some ideas. Two of which I have fulfilled in this chapter. 
> 
> 2BeBrazen: Boesemani Tropical Rainbowfish  
> 4theloveofwayhaught: Sea Lion  
> lflorez21_haught: I will be adding a crab, probably in the next chapter! Do you have a name preference you would like me to use?

“Please, come back! I won't hurt you!”  
  
Waverly heard the voice call out again and swam a little further down before turning. She began to swim closer to the surface when all of a sudden she was slammed into and causing her abruptly stop. The mermaid rubbed her shoulder and glared at the tan blob that was shyly trying to make himself seem sorry for what he did.  
  
“What was that for, Flipper?”  
  
Flipper was a sea lion that Waverly had met by accident when she went up to the surface the first few times a couple of months ago. The sea lion was trying to catch fish when the mermaid slammed into him when she was trying to jump out of the water. Of course, it was accidental, and the brunette didn’t see the tan mammal diving into the water as her mind was to focus on observing the beautiful redhead again. The two became fast friends, and Flipper began telling Waverly everything she wanted to know about human. Though some things she really didn’t believe but went with it anyway.  
  
“What do you think you’re doing?”  
  
“I’m jumping out of the water. What does it look like to you?”  
  
“Like you’re trying to get caught by a human. There’s one on the beach right now. They could have seen you.” Flipper looked at his mermaid friend curiously. “Did you?”  
  
“Did I what?” Waverly tried to sound calm, but her voice squeaked at the end.  
  
“You want that human to see you.” It wasn’t a question, more like a statement that Waverly couldn’t deny.  
  
“So what if I did? You know I’ve been coming up to the surface for a while now, and she doesn’t seem harmful to me. What could possibly go wrong?”  
  
“They could start fishing for you.” Waverly spun around and saw a Boesemani Tropical Rainbow-fish.  
  
The rainbow-fish was four and a half inches long. Angel's head was blue, but as you got closer to the fins, the colors turned to lighter shades of blue to green and yellow, down to the tail being orange. Secretly, she was Waverly’s favorite type of fish just because of the colors, though the mermaid was never going to admit that out loud.  
  
“Angel! You’re supposed to be keeping watch!”  
  
“I am, and you need to leave now. Your father and sisters are looking for you!”  
  
“Fudge-nuggets. Bye Flippers.” The mermaid quickly waved at the sea lion and then began swimming downwards as fast as she could, with Angel hot on her fins.  
\+ + +  
  
Waverly hated that she had to leave the surface. She knew exactly what she was about to do and was excited to finally meet the girl who stole her heart months ago. No matter how many times her father told her to stay away from humans, the mermaid was bound and determined to learn for herself as to why he claimed they were so bad in the first place.  
  
The redhead seemed innocent though. The sincerity in her voice when she called out a second time, was all the more reason for Waverly to finally meet her. She didn’t want to hide anymore and sneaking around to just hide some more was getting ridiculous. She yelled out to her, said I won’t hurt you. Could a human be that cruel and lie to Waverly about not being harmful? It was a terrible thought that ran through the mermaids mind as she got closer to home but in all honesty, she really didn’t want to give it a second thought.  
  
Unfortunately, Waverly’s mind wouldn’t stop circling back to that question or her father's words. _What if he was right and human really_ are _dangerous? Would they honestly make you seem safe and then prove what my dad has been telling me for years, correct? Could or would the redhead hurt me? Has this indeed been the first time she had seen me or was that a lie as well? Should I even go back to the surface and risk my life just to know this girl?_ There were so many questions, but there was honestly only one way to find out, but the mermaid wasn’t sure if she wanted to find out the answer to them anymore.

...

  
Nicole stood in the sand where the water lightly brushed over her feet. She still couldn’t believe what her eyes had just seen. The action was fast, but nonetheless, the redhead saw it, saw _her._ A mermaid, an honest to god mermaid. The teenager didn’t want to believe it, but there was no mistaking in what jumped out of the water.  
  
Then she waited. After calling out twice, Nicole hoped that the mermaid would come back up a fourth time and actually let the redhead see _her._ But she waited and waited and _waited._ It got to the point where Nicole took a couple of steps back and sat down in the sand, with her knees to her chest and arms wrapped around her legs, and hoped that what she saw, really wasn’t some made up fantasy her mind conjured up.  
  
It felt like a lifetime had gone by when the teenager finally gave up hope and slowly extracted herself from the sand. She brushed off the back of her capris and turned around to retrieve her sketchbook and granite art pencils. Nicole didn’t want to go back to her house but there no use in staying down by the beach anymore. The air had gotten a little cooler, nothing terrible, the breeze had also become colder that caused a shiver down the girl’s back, but most importantly, the mermaid wasn't coming back that night.

It was a slow trek back up the path and to the two-story house. The outside light was on, curtsy of her parents being kind enough to flick the switch for her. Nicole glanced around the yard and sighed. There wasn’t anything special about the place, not anymore at least. Most of her childhood ‘playground’ had been sold by the time the redhead was fourteen. Her father found it pointless to have something that was meant for little kids and decided to sell it at a low price to a family with small kids who would ‘use it more.’  
  
What Nicole’s father failed to notice, was that his daughter actually used it every day. She used the monkey bars to do pull-ups and, well, she was the teenager that always tried to run up the slide and hoped that they wouldn’t mess up and fall back down. She loved using the swings as well. It was almost like a safe place for her, and she could imagine what the clouds were shaped like when swung back and forth. It always helped clear her mind and created one of her best sketches she would ever draw. Nicole figured out that her best work was always done outside and when her mind was utterly ridden of the day's problems with her parents, at school, or any of the kids that thought she was weird because she was a tomboy versus a girly girl.  
  
Despite the wind chill, the teenager dropped down onto the grass and opened up her sketchbook to the latest drawing she was working on. She stretched out onto her stomach and somehow managed to get comfortable on the ground that was now covered in a light layer of evening dew. Nicole didn’t care though, it almost felt relaxing somehow, but she also ignored how cold her skin began to get or how annoying it was to wear wet clothes. She didn't even mind that her sketchbook got wet because technically it didn't due to her using the sweatshirt that she brought with her in case she got too cold.  
  
The sketch the redhead was working on was of the beach, again. There wasn’t much on the paper because her eyes kept wandering to the water to see if something would jump out but still she started on the sand and drew a couple of the rocks on the right side of the page. The next thing Nicole began sketching was the ripples of the waves that flowed onto the sand, even going as far as creating the foam that would wash up on the shore.  
  
Before the teenager knew it, the paper had sand, an ocean, rocks, night sky with a crescent moon with light clouds passing over it. A half sketching of a small boat on the left side of the page and the center drawing was a beautiful mermaid jumping out of the water; something only Nicole was lucky enough to see. After a minute of staring at her finished art piece, the redhead looked down at the boat in the left corner and an idea popped into head. If the mermaid wasn’t going to come to her, then maybe she could meet her halfway?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To those who are wondering and follow any of my stories, the next one I am updating will be 'My Past That Haunt's Me.' followed by 'And Then You Happened.'
> 
> If you're ever wondering which story I am posting next, check out my works page and whatever story is above 'I Dare You' is the next one.


	4. Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waverly finds out something shocking; Nicole puts her plan in motion and hopes to meet her mermaid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **BEFORE YOU READ!**
> 
> **THE FIGHT IS ON!** If you have a Twitter account and love Wynonna Earp just as much as I do, then go there and post why it's so important to you. Our show is in danger of getting canceled once again, and we as Earpers need to fight as hard as we can to show how much we love it. When posting, make sure to add #WynonnaEarp, #FightForWynonna, @SYFY, and @IDWPublishing, when posting.
> 
> As of right, no one really knows what is going on other than the assumption of IDWPublishing not having enough funds to help produce Wynonna Earp. [Here](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/idw-media-holdings-discloses-financial-and-operational-developments-1027830183) is the article about this information if you want to know about that. Other than that, go [here](https://wynonnaearpfans.com/2019/02/22/wynonna-earp-season-4-the-fight-is-on/) to stay up to dated on whether or not Earpers have saved our show.
> 
> Also, let's do our best in getting us trending on Twitter like we did yesterday!!
> 
> Now, without further ado, here is the four chapter! This chapter is also 1,000 words more than I expected to be, but I also wanted to get to a certain point in this chapter as well.
> 
> Happy Reading!

If there was one thing Waverly was feeling out of all of the emotions, it was fear. To know that her father _and_ sisters were all looking for her scared her to death. She had hoped no one saw her swimming up to the surface or worse, told her father about it. The mermaid is half expecting to be yelled at; so loud that the entire ocean and all those who live within in it would be able to hear. Though to her surprise, Ward wasn’t half as angry as she thought he would be.  
  
“Where were you, girl?” Ward bellowed out as Waverly gotten closer. She noticed her sisters were not far behind their father. Before she could even answer, he yelled out again. “Answer me, child! Where were you?” He repeated.  
  
Waverly could tell that her father was scared just by looking into his eyes. “I was out swimming around the reefs by the drop-off.” It wasn’t a flat-out lie. The mermaid was by the drop-off. It was usually how she got up to the surface.  
  
“Can anyone back up that story?” Willa scoffed.  
  
“Yes, Willa! I was with Angel!”  
  
“What, your four-inch long pet!” The oldest sister mocked. Waverly barely heard Wynonna tell Willa to ‘knock it off.’ “What it’s true.”  
  
“Enough you two!” Ward barked. “Waverly, did you go to the surface?” He asked, his voice was quieter, but eyes softer, but they continued to speak volume for how scared he felt.  
  
“No, I did not.” Waverly lied. She felt strangely relaxed knowing that she could look her father in the eye and lie to him. She hated doing it, but the mermaid didn’t want Ward upset with her and her curiosity of knowing what it was like above water.  
  
“Okay. Remember what I said.”  
  
“Its dangerous were there are humans. I know, daddy. It’s getting late, let’s all go home.” The youngest mermaid suggested. Ward and Willa began swimming away while the two youngest daughters stayed behind.  
  
Once the other two were far enough away, Wynonna crossed her arms and shook her head at Waverly. “You lied to him, didn’t you?” Though it was a question, Waverly knew it was more of a statement than anything else. “You can’t keep going up there, Baby Girl. Besides, I thought I was the reckless one in this family, not you?”  
  
“I know, Wynonna, but I can’t help it. Haven’t you ever wanted to know why daddy is so scared of them?”  
  
“Yea, but that doesn’t mean expose yourself to them either.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Waverly, I was the one who told Angel that we were looking for you. I saw you jump out of the water. Actually, I saw you jump twice. What if a human saw you?” Waverly felt her tail twitch and knew that her sister had caught the movement. “Wave, please tell me you’re not trying to get seen by one of them?”  
  
“Of course not. I just wanted to jump out of the water. Whales and dolphins do it all the time, so why can't we?”  
  
Wynonna sighed. She knew her little sister had a point, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t worry for her. The older mermaid loved her sister and would be devastated if anything was to happen to her. Unfortunately, even though Waverly was right, Wynonna also knew she wasn’t telling the truth either.  
  
Wynonna sighed again. “Just be careful. Whatever it is you’re doing, please be careful.” She repeated. “I don’t want to lose you, Baby Girl. Not to humans. I’ll never forgive myself if something does and I did nothing to stop it.”  
  
Waverly swam over to her sister and hugged her. “I will, Wynonna, and thank you for not ratting me out to daddy.”    
  
“You get caught, and I’ll have too!” Wynonna warned. She looked up towards the surfaced and hoped that now that Waverly knew someone had caught her, she would stop swimming up where humans could see her.

…

  
Three days. _Three days_ had passed since Nicole had last seen the mermaid. She had to go out a buy a brand new sketchbook because she drew on the rest of the pages in her old one. Every single picture was of the ocean and mermaid that jumped out of it. One was also of the boat out in the water with her sitting inside it. That particular drawing was the one she stared at the most over the last few days.  
  
Nicole had created a plan. One that would, hopefully, allow her to meet the mermaid that invaded her thoughts and most recently, her dreams. She couldn’t stop thinking about the long brown hair that flowed down creamy tan skin. The redhead had wished she’s seen the mermaids face, but it all happened far too quickly. Though there was one thing that she absolutely had to stop thinking about. Unlike the movies, the mermaid she saw, wasn’t wear clam shells as a bra. Just thinking about it made the teenagers skin flush.  
  
Instead of allowing her mind to wonder, Nicole closed her eyes, _hard,_ and shook her head. After a few seconds had passed, she blinked her eyes back open and then went to grab her phone on the nightstand. The redhead smiled when she noticed the date on her phone. Her parents both had conference meetings at work and wouldn’t be home until late that night. That also meant Nicole had plenty of time to execute her plan.  
  
Though it was simple, the plan had to be done at the right time unless it could go haywire. Nicole decided that she wanted to go out during high tide, figuring it would be easier to get the boat out and to her relief, it was. She pushed the boat until the water hit just below her knees before jumping in. Once settled, the redhead grabbed the two small oars that were attached to the boat and began rowing out into the ocean.  
  
Her heart started to pound against her chest, and the teenager had to take in deep breathes. For the past few days, after not seeing the mermaid, Nicole began to think that she had gone crazy. That may be her mother was right, and she had been spending a lot of time down by the ocean, and her mind was just making things up. Deep down, the redhead knew _she_ was right. The teenager had _seen_ a mermaid, and now she was going to prove. Plus, Nicole really wanted to get to know the beauty that was invading her thoughts. With a few hard rows and a couple of setbacks due to waves coming in, Nicole finally got to a point where the water was calm. As for her heartbeat, it continued to rapidly spike higher the further she got out into the ocean.  
  
Once settled, the boat rocked with the small waves that came through, the redhead breathed in deeply and slowly let out. She did the process a couple of times before and smiled after her heartbeat came back to normal. Nicole looked around the ocean, and her smile grew wider. Her house looked smaller, and the beach seemed so far away. Above her, she could hear seagulls crying out and to her surprise, it relaxing, peaceful even.  
  
Looking back out towards her house, the teenager noticed that one of the seagulls landed on the boat. She went to shoo it away but decided against it. Something about the white with a black speckled back and black beak made the bird seem friendly. Quickly glancing around the boat, Nicole hoped to find some type of food lying around it, but unfortunately, there was none.  
  
“Sorry, buddy. Got nothing to give you.” Nicole apologized. The seagull squawked at her but remained perched on the edge of the boat.  
  
After a few minutes of staring at the bird, it squawked at her again and began flapping his wings. Another squawk and the seagull flew off but continued to stay near. The cries got louder as the bird started to swoop down. Nicole ducked her head while trying not to get pecked to clawed at and in doing so, she turned her head in the direction of the wide open ocean. That was when she realized that she wasn’t being attacked but warned.  
  
Nicole grabbed the oars and began rowing back towards the beach as soon as she saw the incoming tidal wave. It was rising higher the closer it got to shore, and her fears of being capsized on a boat came to surface. Sadly though, she didn’t have enough time to make it back to land before the water came crashing down on her small boat. Everything happened so fast that the teenager wasn’t even sure what was happening in the first place.  
  
She got brought under water and did Nicole did her best to break above the surface to get air into her lungs. As soon as she did, another wave came down and brought her back under the water. She struggled to swim as she lost the oxygen in her lungs and before the redhead knew it, everything went black.  
  
The last thing she remembered, was seeing long brown wavy hair and fins directly behind it coming towards her.

…

  
Waverly knew she had to be cautious. Ever since finding out that Wynonna knew about her swimming up to the surface scared her. She wondered if anyone else knew and just decided to not say anything to her father, which if that was the case, she was grateful for. Though, that didn’t mean the mermaid didn’t fear someone else speaking up and revealing her secret.  
  
That was also the reason why Waverly made the decision to wait a few days before going back to the surface. She felt bad though. After knowing that the redheaded girl had seen her, and now not going back up, she hoped that the girl wouldn’t give up on wanting to see the mermaid again. That it wouldn’t be all in her head that such creatures were real or fake. Waverly heard of the stories that humans didn’t believe that they existed and were nothing but… a myth. That was the word Flipper had used when he, himself had heard it from one of the humans when they talked about mermaids once.  
  
When day three came about, Waverly was relentless. She was itching to swim to the surface and put some of her fears to rest. The mermaid was still worried about what her father had said, but none of them came to mind. All that mattered was knowing the redheaded girl was continuing to come down to the water to see _her._  
  
Quietly slipping passed her father, her sisters, and a few other mermaids, Waverly swam as quickly as possible towards the drop-off. As soon as she reached the edge and saw that no one had followed her, the mermaid shot up towards the surface, but before she could reach the top, she noticed something floating in the water. On top of that, she saw that the ripples in the ocean were getting worse by the second.  
  
Two things happened at that moment, one, Waverly battled between the logical part of her that told her to turn around and go back home while her heart told her to see who it was that was in danger. The second thing that happened was that the latter of two battles won out and the brunette was swimming to the surface only to have her fears become nightmares. Sitting inside a boat, was the redhead Waverly thought she’d never see again and behind her, was a tidal wave that was quickly approaching her. She wasn’t sure what to do or say to the girl but thankfully, a seagull that was apparently sitting on the boat as well, took it upon himself to let the redhead know that something was coming their way. Thankfully, to the mermaid's relief, the girl caught on and began heading back toward the shore.  
  
Unfortunately, though, the redhead wasn’t fast enough. Waverly knew what was about to happen and swam back down into the water knowing she wasn’t able to make it to the boat fast enough. So she waited for the inevitable. It all happened in a blur, but the second the mermaid saw a flash of red, she swam towards it as quickly as she could and as soon as Waverly was close enough, she wrapped her arms around the girl's torso and began swimming back up to the surface.  
  
Within a minute, Waverly broke through the surface with the girl in her arms and pushed herself onto the sand. She continued to hold onto the redhead with one arm as she dragged the both of them further up the shore. Once the brunette knew they were far enough away from the water, she stopped and laid the girl gently down. Waverly wasn’t sure what to do at that point but wait. Wait until there was some type of sign...  
  
“Flipper!” Waverly screeched when her friend jumped on the redhead. She was so focused on the human that she didn't hear the seal lion come up behind her. Oddly enough, when he jumped on top of her torso, it caused the girl to spit up water and to cough uncontrollably. The mermaid blinked and looked back at her friend who was already retreating certainto the ocean. When she glanced back at the redhead though, all she saw was wide brown eyes staring at her, and a beautiful dimpled smile to match.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the seagull I see Nicole talking too.
> 
>  
> 
> To those who are wondering and follow any of my stories, the next one I am updating will be 'My Past That Haunt's Me.' followed by 'And Then You Happened.'
> 
> If you're ever wondering which story I am posting next, check out my works page and whatever story is above 'I Dare You' is the next one.

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow me and/or ask questions at: [Tumblr](https://cwinter1994.tumblr.com/) and [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Cwinter1994)


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